Brett L. Walker: The Lost Wolves of Japan (2005)

Amazon Verfasst von Agon S. Buchholz am 26. Februar 2008 - 18:48

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Grauwolf

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Japan

The Lost Wolves of Japan - The story of wolf extinction in Japan and its relation to Japanese culture ist ein kulturanthropologisches Sachbuch von Brett L. Walker aus dem Jahr 2005.

Walker untersucht die Geschichte der japanischen Einstellungen zum Wolf, die sich von der Vorstellung als Schutzgottheit der Bauern zu einer lebensgefährdenden Bedrohung verschob. Er vertritt dabei die These, dass die Modernisierung Japans in ursächlichem Zusammenhang mit diesem Einstellungswandel steht.

Die gebundene Ausgabe hat einen Umfang von 331 Seiten und erschien im September 2005 in der Reihe Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books bei University of Washington Press, Seattle, London (ISBN 0295984929). Das Vorwort verfasste William Cronon.

Contents

1 Inhalt
2 Gliederung
3 Literatur
4 Netmarks

Inhalt

Many Japanese once revered the wolf as Oguchi no Magami, or Large-Mouthed Pure God, but as Japan began its modern transformation wolves lost their otherworldly status and became noxious animals that needed to be killed. By 1905 they had disappeared from the country. In this spirited and absorbing narrative, Brett Walker takes a deep look at the scientific, cultural, and environmental dimensions of wolf extinction in Japan and tracks changing attitudes toward nature through Japan's long history. He discusses prominent Japanese naturalists, their theories of wolf extinction, and the development of Japan's scientific discipline of ecology, looking at how nation-building and industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries reconfigured relationships with the natural world in ways that led to the extinction of wolves.

Grain farmers once worshiped wolves at shrines and left food offerings near their dens, beseeching the elusive canine to protect their crops from the sharp hooves and voracious appetites of wild boars and deer. Talismans and charms adorned with images of wolves protected against fire, disease, and other calamities and brought fertility to agrarian communities and to couples hoping to have children. The Ainu people believed that they were born from the union of a wolflike creature and a goddess.

In the eighteenth century, wolves were seen as rabid man-killers in many parts of Japan. Highly ritualized wolf hunts were instigated to cleanse the landscape of what many considered as demons. By the nineteenth century, however, the destruction of wolves had become decidedly unceremonious. To contrast wolf killings in the decades before and after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Walker looks at killings on the island of Hokkaido. The systematic erasure of one of the archipelago's largest carnivores--through poisoning, hired hunters, and a bounty system--elevated humans to spiritual and actual mastery over a part of the natural world.

The story of wolf extinction exposes the underside of Japan's modernization. Certain wolf scientists still camp out in Japan to listen for any trace of the elusive canines. The quiet they experience reminds us of the profound silence that awaits all humanity when, as the Japanese priest Kenko taught almost seven centuries ago, we "look on fellow sentient creatures without feeling compassion" (Verlagsinformation)

Gliederung

Auswahl aus dem Inhalt:

Science and the Creation - Hokkaido wolf, Wakan sansai zue, Japanese Archipelago
Culture and the Creation - Ainu, Mitsumine Shrine, Inari
The Conflicts between Wolf Hunters - Kakunodate, Beast of Gévaudan, wolf hunts
Epilogue - Aibo, Hachinohe, Kaga domain
Wolves and Bears Killed - Tokyo, ökami, Niikappu

Literatur

Brett L. Walker: "The History and Ecology of the Extinction of the Japanese Wolf", in: The Japan Foundation Newsletter XXIX/No. 1, October 2001, S. 10-13.